Thanks to The Sixth Sense, writer-director M Night Shyamalan was once a critics' darling. Not any more. This irredeemable nonsense, in which a moistened waif crawls out of a swimming pool dripping hobbity-tosh tales of 'narfs' and nymphs, finds the film-maker indulging his most pompous fantasies. Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard struggle to keep straight faces as they deliver ear-meltingly ludicrous dialogue, while a stupid film critic gets eaten by a monster - ha ha. As for Shyamalan, he modestly casts himself as a brilliant writer whose self-sacrifi cing work will save the world. Boo!

A Scanner Darkly 2006 Warner, 15 £17.99

Former slacker Richard Linklater expands upon the 'interpolated rotoscoping' experiments of Waking Life with this dream-like adaptation of Philip K Dick's typically hallucinogenic source. An undercover agent lo ses track of his own multiple identities as America descends into duplicity and dope-addled paranoia. Through the animated reconfi guration of live-action footage (performed by Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson and Robert Downey Jr) Linklater admirably captures the off - kilter tone of Dick's twisted writing, particularly in the eye-pleasing, brainfuddling 'scramble suit' scenes.

Douglas Sirk Box Set 1951-59, U, Universal £67.50

Danish film-maker Sirk left Germany in 1937 with his Jewish second wife, leaving behind a son from his first marriage who was put into the Hitler Youth by Sirk's first wife, became a child star, and was killed on the Eastern Front in 1944. Sirk made low-budget films until joining Universal in 1950, where he directed 21 films in 10 years. All were tasteful genre movies: weepies, melodramas, musicals, a western, a war film and a historical epic. Most featured female stars past their prime (Stanwyck, Wyman, Colbert, Turner, Allyson). Seven starred Rock Hudson. Most were box-office successes and many are now seen as masterpieces that subtly employ melodrama for social criticism. Fassbinder, Todd Haynes, Almodovar and Scorsese are among numerous devotees. Of the seven in this box, fi ve are classics: Imitation of Life, and four Hudson flicks, Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind (inspiration for Dallas) and The Tarnished Angels .